Seoul Semiconductor sues global retailer for patent infringement

Seoul Semiconductor has filed a patent infringement lawsuit together with its affiliate company, Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd., against Kmart Corporation in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

Kmart Corporation is a global retail company with approximately 1’000 stores in the US. In the complaint, Seoul Semiconductor asserts that Kmart is selling LED products that infringe eight patents covering fundamental LED technologies, including high CRI enhancement with phosphor combinations, LED epitaxial growth, LED chip fabrication, multi chip mounting technology, omni directional LED lamp technology, and Acrich MJT technology. According to Seul Semiconductor, the accused product includes an LED filament bulb that is gaining widespread consumer attention in the US as a replacement for traditional incandescent bulbs.

One of the asserted patents was invented by Shuji Nakamura, recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to blue LED development. Another co-inventor is Dr. Steven DenBaars, a professor of Materials and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Ki-bum Nam, Vice President of the Lighting Business Department at Seoul Semiconductor, said, “We have invested tremendous resources for environment-friendly technology innovation for 25 years, and as a result, we have successfully commercialized a various kinds of the first-developed technologies.” Mr. Nam added, “Respecting intellectual property is essential for technology innovation and fair market competition, but there are numerous LED products currently on the market that infringe our intellectual property. To a fair market competition, we continuously take any and all actions necessary to deter such infringement and protect our intellectual property.”